The present invention relates to a slipper type shoe and more particularly to a disposable, sanitary slipper type shoe that is biodegradeable and non-polluting to the environment.
Environmental protection is a growing concern worldwide. Developed countries in Western Europe, North America, and Japan have a growing resistance to the usage of plastics for many articles. More and more, paper and other biodegradeable materials are replacing plastics in such everyday items as bags and containers.
On the other hand, the design, manufacture, and widespread use of disposable articles is also a worldwide trend. In particular, the use of foamed plastics, such as styrofoam, in such ubiquitous articles as containers, bowls, and, of course, slippers though offering the convenience of quick disposability, create serious environmental pollution problems.
Shoes are an item that are used by all peoples on a daily basis that also pose serious sanitary problems.
Particles of dead epidermis that naturally flake off from human skin or is rubbed out by friction with the shoe collect in the nooks and crevices of the shoe, which along with the warmth and sweat supplied humidity from a user's foot create a fertile cultivating ground for various micro-organisms.
Infectious pathogens that can easily infest and thrive inside a shoe often cause serious skin and foot diseases, especially in the case of shoes which often directly contact the skin of the user's foot, such as slippers and sandals. Broken skin on a user's foot is especially susceptible to infection which can lead to inflammation or more serious complications.
Though frequent washings may serve to keep shoes in sanitary condition, this is often inconvenient, time consuming, or impractical due to the shoe's design. It is for this reason that disposeable slippers have become common the home and are a practical necessity for public institutions such as hotels, lodges, and hospitals. In the case of the laqtter institutions having slippers repeatedly worn by different users would of course greatly complicate the sanitary problems mentioned above.
Nevertheless, it is often the case for sanitation conscious guests in a private home to be ill at ease when required to wear slippers offered by the host not knowing how often the slipper has been worm by ther. Even in a public domicile such as the hotels and lodges mentioned above, some patrons decline to wear the disposable slippers offered, fearing that cost conscious administraters may have simply re-issued them in an effort to reduce overhead.
The slipper type shoe of the present invention overcomes all these problems in providing a disposble slipper that is non-polluting to the environment, sanitary, and offers a way for a user to determine whether the slipper has been worn or not, due to its unique construction. Moreover, all this is obtained at a very low cost.
The slipper type shoe of the present invention is manufactured completely from natural organic materials that are biodegradeable. The bulk of the slipper consists of what are normally waste byproducts from argricultural related industries which accounts for its low cost. Disposed slippers may even be recycled.